shipping, and bade fair, with the special advantages they now possessed, to surpass it in amount ere many years had elapsed. Under such circumstances, unusual efforts were necessary to maintain our position as the first of maritime nations.[1] We had, however, one advantage which our great American competitors did not possess. We had iron in abundance; and, about this period, we were specially directing our attention to the construction of iron ships to be propelled by the screw.
Various of these vessels, to which I shall hereafter fully refer, were launched about the year 1850, and placed in competition with the American liners, which had long, all but monopolised the trade between the United States and Europe. Even if we could not build wooden ships, as was then feared, at as low a cost as the Americans, we had the advantage in labour, in the cost of equipment, and in being able to produce a superior class of vessels suited for the China and other distant trades, from our English oak.[2]*
- ↑ At that moment our prospects were certainly very gloomy, and it was not surprising that many of our shipowners were disposing of their property. On the other hand, as most of our shipbuilders were idle, it was a favourable moment to contract for the construction of ships. I, therefore, embraced the opportunity, and contracted in one week for six ships of an improved description, of about 1000 tons each. Two of these I built at Sunderland, two at Maryport, one in Dundee, and one in Jersey. Most of the old school of shipowners thought I had lost my senses, and prophesied "ruin;" but others thought there was "method in my madness," and were thus encouraged to follow my example. Many of my readers may remember the jeering paragraphs which appeared in the Free-trade journals of the period, headed "Lindsay and more ruin," "Not so bad as they seem," and so forth. But the fact had an astonishing effect in rousing our shipowners from their dreams of despair, and I never had any reason to regret my "daring speculation."
- ↑ Mr. T. C. Cowper, of Aberdeen, himself a member of a well-known shipbuilding firm in Aberdeen, who had spent some time in China at
